NavalMonographie1Bustelo

LELA Presse of France is the publisher of the French language Navires & Historie and Avions series of magazines as well as numerous books on naval and aviation topics. Their newest magazine-style
quarterly series is called Naval Monographies 3D and the subject of the debut issue is very apropos – the French battleship Richelieu.

Richelieu is arguably the most famous French warship and the ship is covered in great detail in this volume. The format for this series is to have numerous CAD 3D images supplemented with almost as many
photographs, some of which have not been seen before. Most of each volume will cover the main subject which naturally will be the ship. Two smaller but related articles will round out each issue. These
articles will also be fully illustrated with 3D images and photograph. In this issue the supplemental articles cover the quadruple 40mm Bofors gun, which were fitted on the Richelieu during her refit in the
Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the Loire 130 flying boat, which was fitted on the Richelieu early in her career as well as on other French warships. A major plus for this series is that the text is bilingual – French
and English.

The main article on Richelieu is written by Phillippe Caresse, who as written other titles on French naval ships for LELA Presse. The design, building and full career of Richelieu is thoroughly covered
given the constraints of a magazine format. The article on the 40mm Bofors is written by a well-known name to ship modelers – Jacques Druel of L’Arsenal. Lastly the article on the Loire 130 is written
by Michael Ledet who has authored and co-authored several aviation related titles for LELA Presse. These articles also cover the design and service history and specifications of their topics. The English
language portion of the text is good but could flow a little better in my opinion as it reads like a literal linear translation. I did notice one omission on page 9: the English language armament table for the
Richelieu does not include the twelve 100mm cannons in double mounts that this ship had but these are included in the French language table on page 8.

The real highlight and selling point for this series is the stunning full color 3D CAD images created by Benjamin Druel who also creates the CAD drawings used by L’Arsenal for their masters. The images
are based on meticulous research and are purported to be the most accurate for Richelieu’s 1945 fit. The images show the ship in a wide variety of angles and perspectives and they provide modelers with
an excellent visual reference.

Overall this debut issue is a winner and the series promises to be an excellent new resource for ship modelers and enthusiasts. I know what the subject of the next two issues will but I am sworn to secrecy.
I can tell you that they will make many of you very happy. My thanks to LELA Presse (http://www.avions-bateaux.com/) for the review sample.

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